Question

How does butter in your food get digested and absorbed in the body?

Answer 1

• Butter contains a high percentage of fat in the small intestine.
• The bile juice secreted by the liver converts the large fat globules into smaller globules, so as to increase their surface area for the action of lipase. This process is referred to as the emulsification of fats.
• The pancreatic lipase present in the pancreatic juice and the intestinal lipase present in the intestinal juice hydrolyses the fat molecules into triglycerides, diglycerides, monoglycerides, and ultimately into glycerol.

Fats ------------------------>Triglycerides + Diglycerides

Diglycerides and monoglycerides --------------> Fatty acids + Glycerol

Absorption of fats:

• Fat absorption is an active process. During fat digestion, fats are hydrolyzed into fatty acids and glycerol. However, since these are water-insoluble, they cannot be directly absorbed by the blood.
• Hence, they are first incorporated into small droplets called micelles and then transported into the villi of the intestinal mucosa.
• They are then reformed into small microscopic particles called chylomicrons, which are small, protein-coated fat globules.
• These chylomicrons are transported to the lymph vessels in the villi.
• From the lymph vessels, the absorbed food is finally released into the bloodstream and from the bloodstream, to each and every cell of the body.